Student Blogs-Yes or No?

After reading more about student blogs and understanding their potential purpose in the classroom can you envision using them in your current classes or helping others use blogs in their classroom? Why or why not? How could maintaining a student blog assist your potential global connections?

I can see the richness and purpose in students having an active blog in your class. However, for my class I don't think that students would take the time to read each others blog posts or the interaction would not be as good as online discussions. We have gone back and forth about making these an option, but I am not sold yet. I really like the discussions that students have. I have used Google Community before with some luck for outside discussions but I don't think that all students are genuinely connecting.